I am not ready to dismiss the "intolerance" out of hand. True, "real" celiac disease is very rare. With SEVERE malnutrition as the problem, not "Gee, I don't feel good."But, medically, we have no "real" investigation of intolerance. Unless you are willing to accept the Monsanto agenda laden "stuff". Humans usually display a spectrum of sensitivity and intolerance (mild to severe) rather than black/white reactions.I find far too many patients with anecdotal reports of improvement in quality of life. We have dealt with hypochondria since decent record keeping began. Some of the alarm is due to hypochondria.But there is something new afoot.

People just want to belong to groups, and to be special. Gluten intolerance lets these snowflakes be special and unique...together! They can form support groups and bemoan how that nasty Monsanto wheat made their tummys rumble most dis-harmoniously. It certainly wasn't because they ate an entire box of cookies in one sitting.

Then there's the group of people who will just fleece the above group and charge them money, so that they can affirm their specialness. These people have five billion reasons to continue the charade.

Then there are the poor folks who actually have Celiac disease, who happily now have more food choices, but unhappily have to deal with the snarky people like me who like to mock the hypochondriacs.

snocone:I am not ready to dismiss the "intolerance" out of hand. True, "real" celiac disease is very rare. With SEVERE malnutrition as the problem, not "Gee, I don't feel good."But, medically, we have no "real" investigation of intolerance. Unless you are willing to accept the Monsanto agenda laden "stuff". Humans usually display a spectrum of sensitivity and intolerance (mild to severe) rather than black/white reactions.I find far too many patients with anecdotal reports of improvement in quality of life. We have dealt with hypochondria since decent record keeping began. Some of the alarm is due to hypochondria.But there is something new afoot.

Felgraf:... Uh?Preettyyy sure my mom has it, given they did A) A blood test, and then B) a *Gut biopsy*.

Not really sure how being a hypochondriac could alter those tests.

That's a good way to be certain, but it's not so good after the fact. The trick is that the gut biopsy is how you conclusively show it. The blood test says maybe you COULD have it. But, and here's the fun part, for the gut biopsy to work, you have to be eating gluten for a couple months before it. If you were feeling bad, you heard about the gluten nonsense, stopped eating gluten and felt a lot better, now the biopsy won't show anything. I know one person in that situation. She's had the blood test, and she'd love for the doctor to be able to tell her that she has Celiac so she doesn't feel like she's lying to everyone, but as bad as it was, she's not willing to eat gluten for another couple months.

I smoked for around 10 years. I finally decided to quit and was able to do it cold turkey. I had a persistent cough afterwords for years.One day I Googled "Cough and Smoking" to see if I could figure out why I still had it. I got nothing but Lung cancer hits.

The next week I started to get pains in my chest, like really nasty pains. I manged to convince myself I had cancer. They were so sever theykeep me awake at night. I was scared to go to the doctor because I didn't want to hear the Big C. Finally my wife got sick of it and dragged me downto an insta-care and they took a chest xray. I was sitting in the waiting room waiting for my death sentence when the doctor came in and told me nothingwas wrong.

The pain in my chest dissipated within 20 minutes. It was so bizarre. It was all in my head.

Morals to the story:Don't diagnose yourself on Google.Don't Smoke.Be excellent to each other.

snocone:I am not ready to dismiss the "intolerance" out of hand. True, "real" celiac disease is very rare. With SEVERE malnutrition as the problem, not "Gee, I don't feel good."But, medically, we have no "real" investigation of intolerance. Unless you are willing to accept the Monsanto agenda laden "stuff". Humans usually display a spectrum of sensitivity and intolerance (mild to severe) rather than black/white reactions.I find far too many patients with anecdotal reports of improvement in quality of life. We have dealt with hypochondria since decent record keeping began. Some of the alarm is due to hypochondria.But there is something new afoot.

"Gluten Intolerance" pretty much appeared out of nowhere a couple years ago. What's afoot are buzzwords and the placebo effect.

I'll tell that to the full blooded Italian daughter of an Italian couple. After she finishes giving me injuries painful enough to duplicate her 3 day stint in the ER last week from accidentally ingesting something with gluten in it, maybe we'll have a chat about what is white and what isn't.

Great idea. I think I'll run down to the local water mill and... oh, wait. The local water mill is now a B&B with a charming old-timey restaurant attached. How the hell can someone write an article suggesting that one make one's own flour without a reference, a link, somethingabout how precisely one might go about that?

There's a minimum of two local bakeries in my area that mill their own wheat. They sell heavenly bread for $5 a loaf, 50% off for day-old. and that's just the suburb I'm in- there's many more in the whole area.

I'll tell that to the full blooded Italian daughter of an Italian couple. After she finishes giving me injuries painful enough to duplicate her 3 day stint in the ER last week from accidentally ingesting something with gluten in it, maybe we'll have a chat about what is white and what isn't.

Please, Italians have been White since Hispanics became the new Blacks.

Great idea. I think I'll run down to the local water mill and... oh, wait. The local water mill is now a B&B with a charming old-timey restaurant attached. How the hell can someone write an article suggesting that one make one's own flour without a reference, a link, somethingabout how precisely one might go about that?

There's a minimum of two local bakeries in my area that mill their own wheat. They sell heavenly bread for $5 a loaf, 50% off for day-old. and that's just the suburb I'm in- there's many more in the whole area.

My wife's best friend is "gluten intolerant" and refuses to eat wheat claiming it makes her sick. She also works for Univera and daily consumes their 20 dollar orange juice because it sooo much healthier.

A few months ago she got drunk on Coors at our house and ate half a medium pizza that was left over in the fridge.

I'll tell that to the full blooded Italian daughter of an Italian couple. After she finishes giving me injuries painful enough to duplicate her 3 day stint in the ER last week from accidentally ingesting something with gluten in it, maybe we'll have a chat about what is white and what isn't.

Please, Italians have been White since Hispanics became the new Blacks.

Tell that to the rednecks in Tennessee who confused her uncle with a "damn farking muslim farker. get the fark back to your farking shiat country"

There are too many people that have the strong opinion that anything they, i A- know nothing about B- have no experience with C- cannot grasp the concept of, simply cannot be real. If it exists outside their little cubicle of life it scares them.Idiots.Trends are stupid.

I'll tell that to the full blooded Italian daughter of an Italian couple. After she finishes giving me injuries painful enough to duplicate her 3 day stint in the ER last week from accidentally ingesting something with gluten in it, maybe we'll have a chat about what is white and what isn't.

Please, Italians have been White since Hispanics became the new Blacks.

On another note. A friend of mine was born with the recessive Italian gene that makes him pasty white. He's the only white Italian at periodic holiday vacations and family reunions with rooms full of Italians. In his words, he's the token white man. Also as he put it "Italian skin, italian skin, oh look it's James, Italian skin, italian skin.."

Farking Canuck:Great. More comments from people who do not have a condition claiming the condition is fake. AKA dicks.

Interesting approach to topical matters.

I do have a condition. I'm diabetic. It is certainly genetic, and it ravages us all in my family. And yet, I recognize a definite, provable relationship between diabetes and grain consumption. Celiac be damned, I contend with about 20 years of observations that diabetes is a grain related condition. I anticipate serious disagreement from others here at fark.com, but using your stated gold standard, if they are not themselves diabetic, regardless of their level of education or expertise, I can haughtily dismiss them as dicks. Cool!

Regarding your comment above, my being a diabetic somehow gives me clout in discussing the matter which exceeds the foolish opinions of those pesky medical professionals. I'm a god!

/If only this rule applied in the Politics Tab, the world would be a better place. Thanks Canuck!